Farmer Story · Dublin, TX

Armagh sends raw milk, yogurt, and cheese to 3500+ customers across North Texas.She put her own oxygen mask on first.

Katie built the Raw Milk Creamery Club on farmers' markets and word of mouth. Today it carries 2500+ Creamery Club members and 50+ pickup sites, all on one login.

One of the largest raw milk clubs in the country.

15 minutes with Ari — our founder, and a farmer.

Armagh Creamery logo
Katie McDowellArmagh Creamery · Dublin, TX
3,500customers across Texas
2500+Creamery Club members, up from 1,000
1000+retail customers buying without a membership
50+pickup sites across Texas

In her words

"If you're exhausted and spread so thin, at some point that trickles down to your customers."

Katie McDowell · Armagh Creamery · Dublin, TX

How it actually works

"Hey farmhand,
can you…"

Katie texts what she needs. Someone on the Farmhand team does it and texts back, usually before she has finished the next drop.

Fifty-plus sites generate a lot of small emergencies. Most of them fit in a sentence.

So here's a season of it — and everything it built.

See what she runs ↓
FH
FarmhandText message
Thursday 7:04 AM
Hico drop is running an hour behind.
I've notified members at the Hico pickup site!
Wednesday 1:22 PM
There's a machine issue so blueberry yogurt didn't make it this week. Credit everyone who ordered it and tell them why.
Credits applied and the note is out. I paused 6oz blueberry in the shop until Monday — say the word and I'll relist it.
Tuesday 6:40 AM
North Fort Worth waitlist is big enough now. Open Watauga and invite those folks first.
Watauga is live and invites have been sent. I'll cap it at 50 before reinstating the waitlist.
Friday 8:15 PM
I need another delivery driver. Ask the members on the Lubbock run to refer someone.
Job is posted and email sent!
Perfect. That would have been my whole Saturday.
Scroll the thread
01 — Marketing

Word of mouth got her to 1,000 members. It couldn't get her to Dallas.

Referrals don't travel to a metro where you have no members yet. So Katie added the channels that do: Meta ads, influencers, email, SMS, and print, all from one account. A new site now opens with demand already there.

Waitlists that prove demand firstBefore Katie sources a host site in a new area, she opens a waitlist and lets it fill. She can see where the demand actually is, and when the site goes live, invites go out to that list automatically.
Meta ads with tracking built inThree months of paid Facebook and Instagram ads aimed at the Dallas metro brought in 50 new Creamery Club members and 30+ retail shoppers. Farmhand set up the pixel, the UTMs, and the retargeting audience, so every signup traces back to the ad that earned it.
Print that matches everything elseFlyers and pickup-site signage pull from the same brand kit as the ads, so a new drop site opens with a sign for the cooler and cards at the register.
armaghcreamery.com/csa
The Armagh Creamery home page, showing the Creamery Club and drop site map
Printed Armagh Creamery flyer for a new drop site, with a QR code to sign up
Armagh Creamery's Facebook ad: Raw Milk + Yogurt, Now in Dallas, with a Sign up button
02 — Subscriptions

Half a gallon or fifty gallons. Same signup.

Three shares — raw milk, yogurt, and cheese. Members choose the size, the frequency, and one of 50+ pickup sites, then change any of it themselves without emailing Katie.

Twenty-two milk sizes on one planHalf a gallon at $6 a week up to 50 gallons at $500. A family and a buying club sign up through the same form.
Weekly, every other week, or every fourth weekMembers set the interval at signup and change it whenever they want. Katie never touches it.
Skip a week without asking anyoneMembers place their own vacation holds any time before the Monday cutoff. No fee, no email, no phone call.
Add-ons stay off her partners' shelvesSome of Armagh's drop sites are stores that buy from her wholesale. Add-ons can be limited to the sites where they won't compete — so a shop hosting a pickup never watches her sell the same yogurt at the cooler.

2500+ Creamery Club members, up from 1,000.

gofarmhand.com/csa/armagh-creamery/plans
The Creamery Club plans page, showing share sizes and weekly or biweekly frequency
Armagh Creamery pickup location list with days, times and a waitlist option
The member holds screen: Going out of town? Place your account on hold to pause orders
She textsWatauga is full. Start a waitlist and tell me when it hits 25.
03 — Retail Shop

A one-off gallon is the on-ramp

Anyone can order a gallon of raw milk, a quart of vanilla honey yogurt, or a wheel of Doublin' Down without joining the Club — and pick it up at the same site club members do.

Custom listings, priced how she sellsRaw milk at $12 a gallon, $10 for Club members. Yogurt quarts at $8. Doublin' Down, her brie-style wheel, at $15.
Retail rides the Club's routeA one-time order goes out on a run that was already heading to that site. No extra stop, no extra driver, no separate delivery day.
Wholesale orders on its own channelStores sit on a separate list and get their own order notice. At the farm it all collapses back down: one pack list, one route, wholesale and retail and subscriptions together.

1000+ retail customers alongside 2500+ members.

gofarmhand.com/shop/armagh-creamery
The Armagh Creamery storefront, showing raw milk, yogurt and cheese with prices
A product page showing the retail price alongside the lower Club member price
She textsAdd 32oz Vanilla Honey back to the shop — 50 available.
04 — Member Support

Her members get an answer. She gets the afternoon back.

With 3500+ customers across 50+ sites, the small questions arrive all day — where's my pickup, can I swap my yogurt, did my payment go through. Farmhand's team answers them, and anything that needs a credit or a notice goes out in Armagh's own branding.

A human replies — it's just not KatieMembers write in and get a real person, in Armagh's voice. Only what actually needs her decision reaches her inbox.
Failed payments retry on their ownIf a card fails again, the member gets a branded notice with a link to fix it. Katie never has to ask anyone for money.
She never has to build a listKatie's members are grouped by pickup location and pickup day automatically. So when weather or a holiday shifts a schedule, the notice goes to the sites involved and nobody else.
An automated failed-payment notice on Armagh Creamery's own branding
A member asking to skip a cycle, with one-click options to skip, deny or assign to Farmhand
She textsSomeone at Odessa says their milk came warm. Credit them and tell me what happened.
05 — Fulfillment

50+ sites. One pack list.

Creamery Club, retail, and wholesale come off the same week of orders — one route, one truck, one pack list that keeps updating until cutoff.

Pack lists that stay current until cutoffHarvest reports, packing slips, and sign-out sheets print off the week's orders and keep updating until Katie's billing cutoff. A member who adds a quart on Monday night shows up on Tuesday's list.
Drivers close a stop with a photoProof of delivery goes out with the "ready for pickup" alert, so members know when their order landed and exactly what's waiting for them.
"Hico drop running late" — one textWhen a route slips, Katie alerts the affected members in one click, or just texts Farmhand and we send it. The Hico members heard about it. The rest of the route never knew.
Armagh Creamery's harvest report, totalling the week's orders for packing
A Wednesday route with four stops and head counts, with Send delay notification and Re-optimize
She textsThe Lubbock truck is an hour behind. Tell Bread & Jam and Natural Health Market.

Your turn

What's the number where your system stops working?

Fifty-plus pickup sites, three shares, a retail shop, and wholesale — one account. Ari is our founder and a farmer. Bring him the part of your week that eats the most hours.